Starc raving mad: rotation causing plenty of angst

Chris Barrett -Dec 26, 2012

Stark reality: No Boxing Day Test for Mitchell Starc. Photo: AP

ALYSSA Healy, the Australian women's wicketkeeper, summed up the mood best with a tweet on Christmas Eve, around the time the omission of her boyfriend, Mitchell Starc, from the Boxing Day Test was made official. It read: ''silliness. They are taking away a boys childhood dream of playing a Boxing Day test because he ''might'' get injured!''

If the social media grammar was a bit awry, the sentiment of Ian Healy's niece was spot on, where Starc, his family, friends and management are concerned. Starc tweeted that he was ''absolutely shattered'' to be rested but in reality he and those close to him are furious. Not at the implementation of Australian management's rotation system of fast bowlers per se, but at the way in which he found out he would be cooling his heels while his teammates played before the biggest crowd of the home summer. That the whole world knew before he did.

When news first broke on Saturday morning that Starc would not be in the XI at the MCG, the 22-year-old was blissfully unaware. Given his match-clinching efforts against Sri Lanka in the first Test in Hobart, something of a career breakthrough, and the fact he had played only the two Tests in succession, he assumed his selection for Boxing Day was a mere formality. Even when the story dropped that he would be out, and debutant Jackson Bird in, those around him wrote it off as a media beat-up.

Family and friends, with no inkling of his exclusion, had purchased flights and hotel rooms, eager to see Starc take centre stage in the traditional showpiece Test of the calendar for the first time. Only on Sunday evening was it confirmed to the left-arm quick that what he had read was right: his over numbers were in the risk category, that if he bowled in Melbourne there was a tangible danger that he might break down with an injury.

There are all sorts of vehement arguments being made against Australia's interchange of fast bowlers for Tests, aimed at the prevention of injury. Dennis Lillee, Brett Lee, Geoff Lawson, Stuart Clark and myriad others have slammed it, saying it is moronic to strip a bowler of momentum in the name of sports science.

The critics say it no longer rewards effort and success - Starc, with 14 wickets in two Tests, was on a roll. The players, as always, do not want to give up hard-earned spots in the most exclusive of teams, particularly at a time of the year when all eyes are on them.

What has gone horribly wrong in Melbourne is not the rotation of Starc - it is the poor communication. Whatever the merits of Cricket Australia's management of fast bowlers - and it is under review amid a series of recent injuries, as revealed by Fairfax Media last week - the whole process is being dogged by mixed messages.

Pat Howard, the general manager of team performance and the target for those condemning CA, will tell you there is no official rotation policy. To be fair to the former Wallaby, as well as his staff and selectors, they are not moving bowlers around like board game pieces just for the sake of it. They do believe it is in the interests of their long-term plans, prioritisation of series - the Ashes being the be all and end all - and the juggling act between three formats.

But try telling that to Starc, or the other bowlers who, in contrast to CA's usually message-controlled mantra, appear to be either in the dark or rallying against being replaced based on injury projections.

''There's obviously a process with it, but personally, I wouldn't want to miss a Test match,'' said Mitchell Johnson in Melbourne. ''I think Test matches are the pinnacle of cricket, wearing that baggy green.''

In Perth last month Peter Siddle was scratched before the deciding Test against South Africa, owing to his energy-sapping display in Adelaide, and it was later reported, a hamstring niggle. Asked about the rotation policy Siddle said at the time: ''It hasn't happened yet, so no one really knows what's going to happen. The changes have all been through injury at the moment so the rotation policy has been spoken about but it hasn't come into effect yet. It depends on the player, really.''

It turns out it doesn't. In fact, it has nothing to do with how the bowler is feeling. The decision is made for him, by selectors, with the workload figures as a none-too-subtle guide.

Starc, Australia's coach Mickey Arthur explained, is an important ''three-format'' player who needs to be managed carefully ahead of next year's tours of India and England, particularly at his age.

The bowler, though, believes that he knows his body, busted his gut conditioning it in the off-season for this opportunity and is consequently beside himself that his chance has been taken away.

Despite the fierce criticism, Howard's way is in all likelihood here to stay, at least while he is running the program. CA, however, needs to get the message across to its players and soon, or the rotation policy could spin out of control.